The Nones are Alright: Interview with Berkeley author Kaya Oakes

One big trend in the US over the last few decades is that the country is becoming less religious. Far more people are categorizing themselves as Nones — people who say they don’t have a religious identity.

OAKES: The rise of the Nones started in the 80s with Generation X, so people my age and that was during Reagan. And that was the Christian right, and so now the Christian right is back and you are just going to see more people leaving.

Some Nones are atheists. Others say they're searching, to understand who they are. There’s also a kind of home-grown DIY spirituality, where people are mixing and matching religious teachings. There’s still a lot to understand about the Nones, which are a growing demographic.

To find out more, KALW’s Judy Silber spoke to UC Berkeley lecturer Kaya Oakes, who did dozens of in depth interviews to write her book—‘The Nones are Alright’.

Dezi Gallegos is a playwright who is searching for God. He's only 18 years old, but says he's already lived through numerous tough life experiences that led to him asking the question: is there a loving God? And if so, why are these bad things – plagues, he calls them – happening to me and my family?

Three hours north of San Francisco, just east of the ocean, rise the steep, green hills of Cazadero. It’s an idyllic setting: open space with farms, a variety of oak trees, and an abundance of grasses.

A mixed flock of sheep and goats nibble on the plants in what is an almost Biblical scene. My guide and owner of these animals is named Starhawk. From our vantage point on the hill, we hear the chattering of birds. She points above us, to the trunk of a dead tree.